Easy Chickpea Salad Sandwich

If you’re looking for a quick lunch or no-cook dinner idea, you need to try this Easy Plant-Based Chickpea Salad Sandwich. It’s astonishingly simple, incredibly delicious, and a healthful alternative to its more famous chicken salad sandwich cousin, with all of the flavor and none of the mayo (not that we are opposed to mayo).

We love cooking dinners, but we’re honestly pretty simplistic eaters and cooks when it comes to lunch ideas. Our mid-day meals usually consist of leftover dinner from the night before, easy lavash and hummus wraps, or cheese and crackers. Sometimes, if we’re feeling like a bit more of a treat, we’ll make a sandwich. This particular sandwich option is also one that we’ve made for dinner before on warm evenings, or nights when we don’t have a lot of time or energy to spend over the stove or oven.

Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)

We love chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, whatever you want to call them. They’re rich, creamy, and a great way to sneak in some extra protein in a vegetarian or even meat-forward recipe. We add them to salads, roast them and put them in wraps, toss them with spices and sprinkle them over labne, or just eat them on their own. 

Chickpeas are a great source of fiber, protein, iron, and healthy fats. They’re also the main ingredient in hummus, one of our favorite add-ons to sandwiches or wraps. They’re a perfect stand-in for chicken or tuna salad in this recipe too. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, you’ll love them in this sandwich, and if you’re an omnivore, we promise you won’t miss the meat!

It’s All About Simple, Fresh Ingredients

This recipe highlights the creaminess and versatility of chickpeas as well as a few other fresh ingredients. This recipe makes 3 sandwiches. Here’s what you’ll need:

Chickpea Salad

• Chickpeas – this recipe uses canned chickpeas instead of dried ones, but you can use dried instead. Just be sure to cook them first.
• Parsley – parsley gives a little bit of fresh herby flavor to the chickpea salad.
• Green onions – if you don’t have green onions, you could use chives or even red onions instead. 
• Spices – to give this chickpea salad an earthy and smoky flavor, we add cumin and smoked paprika.  

Chickpea Salad Sandwich

• Tomatoes – we like using Roma tomatoes, here, but you can also use tomatoes on the vine, heirloom, or beefsteak tomatoes.
• Avocado – mashed avocados take the place of mayo or another condiment in this sandwich.
• Arugula – this provides a nice peppery flavor and some additional texture.
• Bread – we love this sandwich with lightly toasted sourdough, but feel free to use whatever kind of bread you like.

How to Make the Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Making this sandwich is surprisingly easy. This recipe uses canned chickpeas, so there’s no cooking involved, which makes it come together even faster.

First, make the chickpea salad. In a bowl, mash the chickpeas with a fork. Mix in olive oil, parsley, green onions, spices, salt, and pepper. 

Now it’s time to assemble a sandwich! On one slice of bread, place ⅓ of the mashed avocado. Top with tomato slices and then chickpea salad. Cover with arugula and second piece of bread. Devour immediately.